Holly is a symbol of goodwill and joy. In the Victorian language of flowers, holly means foresight. Holly is seen as a symbol of good luck in both Christianity and Islam. But most importantly for me, it is said that disputes are often solved "under the holly tree"

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Saturday, March 31, 2007

How Palestine became "Israel's Land"

How Palestine became “Israel’s Land”

by Sonja Karkar

March 31, 2007

Women for Palestine

For Palestinians, theirs is not the land of conquest, but the land of their roots going back to time immemorial.Such a lineage does not rely on abiblical promise like the Jewish claim that God promised the land to Abrahamand his descendants, and is therefore, the historical site of the Jewishkingdom of Israel.It belongs to the people of Palestine by the simple factof their continuous residence repeated through birth and possession goingback to the earliest Canaanites and even those people living there beforerecorded history.They were there when the Israelites invaded the land,occupied it, and held it intermittently as wave after wave of otherconquerors came and went, and they were still there when the Romans put anend to Jewish Palestine by destroying Jerusalem in 135AD.If a religiousbasis is sought, then the Palestinians can lay claim to being thedescendants of Abraham’s son Ishmael who is regarded the forefather of theArabs.But actually, Palestinian rights are enshrined in the universallyaccepted principle that land belongs to its indigenous inhabitants.Thus,the modern day struggle for this land by European Jewish immigrants who haveno connection with Palestine other than through their religion is a colonialenterprise that seeks sovereignty for an “external Jewish population” to theexclusion of the indigenous Palestinians who, regardless of faith – Jewish,Christian or Muslim – have lived together for centuries.

Although eager to accept the UN Partition Plan of 1947 which recommendedthat 56% of the land be set aside for a Jewish State, 42% for an Arab stateand 2% for an internationalised Jerusalem and its surrounds, the world hasnot said a word about the land that was seized by Zionist terrorists beforethe State of Israel was proclaimed on 14 May 1948.Through a series ofshocking massacres, the territory assigned to the Jews suddenly became 77%resulting in more than 750,000 Palestinians being forcibly expelled anddispossessed of their homes, personal property and their homeland. TheJewish State then came into being without waiting for the United NationsCommission - prescribed in the Partition resolution - to hand authorityprogressively over to the Jewish and Arab leaders for their respectivestates. And after the 1948 war, Israel declared Jerusalem its capital incontravention of its internationally-recognised status of corpus separatum –a status that is still recognised.Effectively, the new state of Israel wasnot only created in violation of, it continued to violate, the veryresolution which Israelis now look to as giving them sovereignty.The Arabstate imposed by the UN Partition Plan without consultation and incontradiction to the UN charter - which should have upheld the majorityindigenous Palestinians’ right to self-determination - has since beendeliberately and methodically whittled away by Israel, leaving nothing butisolated non-contiguous parcels of land to some 4 million Palestinians.

Around 170,000 Palestinians remained in what became Israel, the largestnumber of whom resided in the Galilee area, originally a designated part ofthe Arab state under the Partition Plan. These Palestinians also becamethe victims of Israel’s land grab policy.Over 438,000 acres, which wasmore than the total Jewish land holdings at the time, were confiscated and afurther 400,000 acres were marked for confiscation.After Israel won the1967 war, the total territory of Palestine came under Israel’s rule. Itannexed East Jerusalem, despite the HolyCity’s internationally recognisedstatus and began implementing its Jewish settlement program with avengeance. The Palestinians in Israel were increasingly aware of theirprecarious position politically and declared a national strike, known as“Land Day” on 30 March 1976 against Israel’s continuing ruthless landexpropriation. An affinity was quickly felt between Palestinianseverywhere and “Land Day” was adopted as a sort of national Palestinian daywhich is commemorated by Palestinians and their supporters around the worldeach year.This awakening of national consciousness had an unequivocalpolitical message: end the occupation and allow self-determination of thePalestinians in a sovereign state living in peace side by side with Israel.

Thirty-one years later, the message is till resonating, but the Palestiniansare further away from seeing a solution than ever before.Daily, Israel istaking a bit of land here and a bit of land there, to make all of Palestine“Israel’s Land”.The problem then will be, what to do with 5 millionPalestinians with no land?There are only a few possible, but criminalsolutions - transfer, collective imprisonment, apartheid, and/or ethniccleansing.Alternatively, Israel can disengage from the West Bank to the1967 borders or agree on a single, democratic state for all.Without a justsolution, the struggle for Palestine’s land will continue.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

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